Pt. Lobos State Reserve

We recently visited Pt. Lobos State Reserve which is just south of Carmel, California. The weather on the Northern California coast is fabulous this time of year and this day was no exception.

Pt. Lobos is a beautiful park with over 6 miles of trails meandering around a rugged rocky point. We started at Whalers Cove and almost hiked around the entire point.

One trail leads down to a slot where the "The Old Veteran" perches on the rocks. It is an ancient picturesque cypress tree.

After hiking the North Point, the South Point, and Sea Lion Point, we cut across at Mound Meadow where we found these mushrooms; fly agaric or amanita muscaria.

We also saw some beautiful brown mushrooms.

And finally we found our way back to Whalers Cove where this snowy egret was fishing amongst the seaweed. It was a beautiful day at Pt. Lobos and a highly recommended day out.

Sunset at Rocky Point

We had dinner at the Rocky Point Restaurant recently and timed it to coincide with the sunset. We were not disappointed. As we ate our salads the sun started coloring the clouds and by the time our entrees were served the sky was ablaze. The photos below were taken only about 3 minutes apart and then it was all over, but what a finish!

Although the sunset was breathtaking, the food, well...not so much. It was like stepping back in time to a menu and cooking style from the 80s. Not that it was bad, just dated, but I guess with this view it doesn't really matter, does it?

Elephant Seals near Piedras Blancas

Just south of Piedras Blancas Lighthouse, and 4 miles north of Hearst Castle is a Northern Elephant Seal rookery. December and January are prime months to visit because that's when the babies are born. We drove down there this morning from Carmel and had a wonderful visit with these interesting animals.

Elephant Seals were almost hunted to extinction in the late 1800s, but in 1990 two dozen seals came to this beach and eventually a rookery was established and now several hundred babies are born here every year.

The bulls arrive as early as November just waiting for the females...

and practicing their fighting techniques. (These are younger males.)

The pregnant females start arriving in December and the first babies are generally born around the middle of December. The mothers nurse the babies for only 4 weeks, after which they mate and then they slip into the ocean to eat. They don't eat at all while waiting for and nursing their babies.

The babies will teach themselves how to swim and fish, but the rich milk the mothers provide has plumped them up to 300 pounds which sustains them while they are learning. The docent told us that the pup above is only a couple of days old.

While all this drama is happening, the old males just snooze and wait for Valentine's Day.

A Tale of Two Cats

Sophie: fat, docile, fixed, female.
Ever watchful of birds and squirrels.
The consummate DREAMER.


Nike: thin, scrappy, scarred, tom.
Ever watchful of humans and free meals.
The prudent REALIST.


And so it would seem we now have TWO cats here Amongst The Oaks.

The Mushrooms of Spring

This could almost be a mystery photo, couldn't it? But I'm going to tell you right up front that it's a shaggy mane mushroom, Coprinus comatus.

In the photo above you can see a whole crop of them sprouting in someone's front lawn. They are said to be delicious, but don't gather the ones that are starting to drip inky black stuff. They are starting to deliquesce, which is the mycological term for decompose. It helps the maturing spores to be in exactly the right spot to float away on puffs of air, thus continuing the species.

They may be kind of creepy when they start dripping, but they sure are cute when they're little. The ones in the photo above were about 3" tall. The one in the photo below was about 7" tall.

Almond Blossoms

Right on schedule the almond trees are in full bloom all around our area. My mother always used to say they were blooming for her birthday which was yesterday. Thank you almond trees, for all the birthday bouquets for Mom.

Can Fog Be Pretty?

I'm behind on my pretty things posts, aren't I?

Usually I think of fog as ugly, dirty, cold and depressing, but this photo of fog is rather nice. It was taken early in the morning and the fog was lifting and burning off but still tucked amongst the hills. I guess fog can be pretty.

Third Day of Beautiful Things

As I said on February first I'm going to share only pretty things this month, so here are some quince blossoms after last night's rain. And the sky promises to be blue blue blue again today. Joy here Amongst The Oaks.

Accent on the Positive

Things are looking up here Amongst The Oaks for a lot of reasons. The weather has been marvelous lately: slightly foggy mornings with bright clear afternoons. Flowers are beginning to bloom: camellias, violets, quince. My father is recovering nicely although it is much more difficult than he imagined.

I am enjoying my new tasks at work; cutting and preparing vinyl letters and installing them all around town. Cleaning and organizing the vinyl room and helping in production.

I think we all need more beauty in our lives right now so for the month of February I am vowing to post a picture of something pretty every day. Nothing more complicated than that; just something pretty. Hopefully it will take our minds off all the problems in our world even if just for a few minutes.

Enjoy.

Natural Halloween Decorations

I like my Halloween decorations to look natural; well, as natural as Halloween decorations can look anyway. So I don't have any giant purple nylon inflatable spiders. But I do have these shriveled grapes and this spider on the web Teen2 made out of yarn.

And I also have this real spider in the front garden. I've been watching her for about two weeks. I worried about her during the storm, but I found her in the same spot with a new web this morning. I think she is in the Neoscona family, but I'm no expert. Any guesses?

I really like spiders and am always happy to see a web in my garden. They are such good neighbors! Eating all the nasty flies and such for us and never asking for anything in return. And apparently she has eaten LOTS of flies because she is huge. Her abdomen is easily 1/2" across. If you click on the photo below you should be able to see her many eyes. And her hairy legs.

Whilst photographing the spider, this Northern Flicker flew over and landed in the tree. What a treat; they are usually so shy. However, the flicker is not very Halloweenish, but if I could get crows to land in my graveyard, my decorating would be perfect!

Stormy Weather

Living Amongst The Oaks during storms is always nerve wracking. Two huge old oaks spread their branches above our roof and I worry about them crashing down on us when it's windy. Thankfully, we only had this one small branch fall; not nearly as big as the one that fell last year, but it did break our backyard party lights. On my way home from work last night I saw several whole trees down, blocking entire streets.

And in other news, I made this cardboard silhouette at Teen1's suggestion. It hangs (get it? "hangs") in the upstairs window of Acorn Cottage and I rigged a fan to blow it gently back and forth. (Sorry for the rubbish photo, but I took it from inside through a rain splattered window.) You can see it from the house, so it should be great fun for our Halloween Party.

Plein Air Painters of America

The Plein-Air Painters of America came to our town yesterday in conjunction with an exhibition at the Haggin Museum. Several artists set up about 9am and proceeded to create a painting in just 3 hours. Teen2 and I went and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the artists.

Above you see Joe Paquet's almost finished painting and below you see his view.

Above another painting and below the artist's view.

Above a shady park scene by Gay Faulkenberry.

A view across the park to one of the surrounding homes by John Budicin.

I liked this man's work because it was different. Not exactly a landscape, but still painted plein-air and wonderful in its fresh lighting and soft colors.

And here is his palette. How do artists make their magic from a mess like this?

I'm sorry I didn't get all the artist's names for you, but I was just so enthralled by it all. I highly recommend the exhibition at the museum where you can see these artists' work plus several others, and also the fabulous landscape paintings of Albert Bierstadt that are in the museum's permanent collection.

Flowers of Oregon

I think this is the last bit of our Oregon vacation that I have to share with you. The flowers were wonderful - weeds and all. These were in Medford at our friends' house.

And these were at Shore Acres Gardens.